Since I first published Adopting from Korea, I receive a handful of
emails a month from Korean adoptees (or their family members) asking for
information about how to conduct a search for birth family.
Rarely easy,
sometimes impossible, this, too, is a journey of the heart for which
I'm happy to provide some small assistance.
I think it's important, as an adoptive parent, to understand that the search
for birth family isn't a rejection of adoptive family. It IS a personal quest
for identity ("Who do I look like?") and belonging ("Who is like me?") that only
our children, who choose to search, can undertake. My adopted children are still
quite young, but I would support any efforts they wish to make to locate birth
family. Again, this is their need to find a sense of wholeness and integration.
This is their work to do, or not to do, as their own hearts dictate.
Here is a
good reference list of related Korean and other International
adoptee resources - each listing contains numerous links to
organizations, email lists, articles, and personal sites:
Korean Adoptee
and Related Adoptee Literature
Since Korean adoptees represent the oldest and largest wave of
internationally-born adoptees, it only makes sense that the bulk of
memoirs being written in this area are being written by adult Korean
adoptees.
Here are the books I especially recommend:
Other books by Korean adoptees or that include
adoption as an important part of the story:
Other books about the transracial adoption experience:
My favorite adoptee memoir is actually about a domestic adoption,
but it is so wonderfully written that I wanted to recommend it here,
as well:
Last, but not least, I'd recommend that both adoptive parents of
Korean-born children and Korean adoptees subscribe to
Korean Quarterly.
It is an excellent read that will speak to the heart of every part of
the Korean American/Korean Adoptive Family/Korean Adoptee community.
